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| Thompson: The GOP '08 hopeful showed more openness to immigrants as a senator than he has as a candidate. Mary Ann Chastain/AP |
Thompson helped immigrants in legal peril
He intervened twice as a US senator for noncitizens at risk of deportation, records show.
from the December 10, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 3
Among its other merits, a private bill for Salinas and three of her children (a fourth born in the United States was already a citizen) "would likely receive positive media coverage in Tennessee," aides wrote Thompson in a July 1999 memo.
Private bills, unlike public ones, benefit specific individuals and are typically a last resort for people with no other legal recourse. Though Congress once passed dozens a year, in recent years few have succeeded, in part because of the rancorous debate over immigration policy.
Supporters say they're an important safety net. "They're meant to provide relief for people where there's no relief available in the public laws," says Anna Marie Gallagher, an immigration lawyer who wrote a book on the subject.
But critics say they take pressure off Congress to change the system for everyone and are unfair to the untold numbers of other immigrants with similarly compelling stories but no access to lawmakers powerful or willing enough to introduce them. When foreigners are made permanent residents through a private law, it reduces the number of green cards available to other would-be immigrants from the same home countries.
"The role of special legislation seems to come directly out of Animal Farm: that every person is equal, but some people are more equal than others," says Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University.
Since entering the race for the Republican presidential nomination, Thompson, who left the Senate in 2002, has been one of the GOP field's most outspoken advocates for the strict enforcement of existing immigration laws. Among other things, his immigration proposal calls for a ban on legal status for illegal immigrants and an end to the preference for adult children of US citizens. That preference set the Lees on a path to citizenship.
"What he did then was work with individuals who had entered the country legally and were in extreme humanitarian and family crises," a Thompson spokesman, Jeff Sadosky, said Friday. Asked whether Thompson would help such families in the same way now, Mr. Sadosky said, "Senator Thompson is always willing to do what he can, openly and in complete accordance with the law, for those law-abiding persons who face exceptionally challenging situations."
The campaign did not answer questions about seeming inconsistencies between his actions as a senator and his current policy proposals.
Not every immigrant who sought Thompson's help got results. His Senate archives contain requests for private bills for two illegal immigrants from Mexico. Thompson or his staff met with the immigrants' supporters, but offered no assistance, said a lawyer who represented one of the men and a Roman Catholic church official who represented the other.
Salinas says that thanks to Thompson, she is living the American dream. Her daughter Gabriela, whose cancer is in remission, and son, Alejandro, started college this year, she says. Her younger children, Omar Jr. and Danny Thomas (named after the St. Jude founder), are thriving in Catholic school.
Salinas says she survives on government disability checks, food stamps, and charity. She recently bought a three-bedroom house with the help of a government program and sees a bright future for her children. "All my life changed when we became residents," she says.
She said she invited Thompson to her son and daughter's high school graduation this spring, but that he sent regrets through an aide. "I know he will be a very, very good president because he has a big heart," she says.
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